George Soros Stands to Gain Millions From His Purchase of MF Global Bonds

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Remember when The Blaze reported that George Soros’ family fund bought $2 billion worth of MF Global’s European bonds?

At the time we reported:

…When MF Global filed for bankruptcy, the firm sold part of the bonds but still had about $4.8 billion worth of them on its books, CNBC reports.

They were turned over to KPMG, MF Global’s bankruptcy administrator in London; they were then offered to big investors by MF Global’s London clearing house, LCH Clearnet, the Journal said, quoting a KPMG spokeswoman.

When KPMG offered the bankrupts firm’s European debt to a variety of big investors, most of them passed. However, they were able to find one investor willing to buy the bonds at rock-bottom prices: George Soros.

A spokesman for Soros declined to give details about the company’s positions and why it decided to buy the bonds.

“While our firm is always in the market, we have a policy of not disclosing details of our positions,” the spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

The Blaze also noted that his purchase of European debt seemed odd, considering that earlier he said that European debt crisis is putting the global financial system in a ”self-reinforcing process of disintegration.”

Now it’s being reported that he stands to profit quite a bit from the purchase.

…the purchases highlight the hefty profits that could come from these bonds. Mr. Soros’s family fund, Soros Fund Management LLC, currently is up more than $130 million based on the marked-down prices paid for the bonds, according to a trader who bought some of the same bonds, though it is hard to put an exact value on the complicated trade [emphasis added].

Buyers paid about 89 cents on the dollar for the Italian bonds, compared with a market price of about 94 cents at the time, according to the trader who bought them.

When ex-MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testified before Congress, many people—specifically MF Global customers—were hoping to hear what happened to the estimated $1.2 billion that has been reported as missing since the firm collapsed.

“I’m not in a position, given the number of transactions, to know anything specific about the movement of any specific funds,” Corzine said.

Corzine stuck to his prepared remarks and claimed that he didn’t know what happened where the money went. Of course his “confusion” (i.e. silence) on the matter has led many analysts to believe that those billions of comingled dollars are gone for good.

With that in mind, and the estimated millions that Soros stands to gain through his investment in MF Global’s European bonds, it looks as if he has once again proven that he is not only a master at picking winners and losers but that he also knows how to profit from a bad situation (see Black Wednesday).